1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to telecommunications equipment and software. More particularly, the invention relates to customer premise equipment and service provider equipment for effecting both voice and data communication through existing public switched telephone networks, including mixed voice and data communication between a variety of equipment configurations, and management and display of data communicated.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Conventional voice telephones and the public switched telephone network (PSTN) are well-known to citizens of today's world. Indeed, telephone systems ranging from the simple instrument purchased for home use to very sophisticated business systems are in widespread use. Among the systems seeing increased use among several market segments is the interactive voice response (IVR) system. An IVR provides an interactive voice session between customer and business in which the business end of the call generates voice messages through recording or synthesizing techniques, and the customer interacts using a telephone keypad or through voiced statements and voice recognition.
One generic example of an IVR is the type used by large banks to give their retail customers instant telephone access to account information. Such a system may give information by voice to the customer or may perform various banking transactions, responsive to commands keyed into the customer's telephone keypad. For example, the customer may inquire as to account balances and may transfer funds from one account to another. The customer's telephone keypad must be of the tone type, which is capable of generating twelve dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signals out of a standard sixteen. The standard DTMF signals are designated "1"-"9", "0", "*", "#" and "A"-"D". Each comprises one of four high frequency tones superposed on one of four low frequency tones. The DTMF standard is contained in "American National Standard for Telecommunications - - - Interface Between Carriers and Customer Installations - - - Analog Voicegrade Switched Access Lines Using Loop-Start and Ground-Start Signaling", ANSI T1.401-1988, and in "Dual-Tone Multifrequency Receiver Generic Requirements for End-to-End Signaling Over Tandem-Switched Voice Links", Issue 1, TR-TSY-000181, Bellcore, March 1987.
To begin a typical IVR transaction the customer calls the bank's IVR system from any telephone capable of generating DTMF signals. The IVR system issues one or more requests for commands or information, the requests being in the form of pre-recorded or synthesized voice messages. By responding with appropriate DTMF signals, the customer may navigate through a series of menus or lists of such requests until the desired information is delivered to the customer as a pre-recorded or synthesized voice message. One problem with IVR systems such as described above is that the communication bandwidth of the spoken messages from the IVR is so low as to be a significant frustration to experienced users. Indeed, if a menu of commands contains a large number of choices, it may even be difficult to recall the appropriate one at the time for making a selection. Navigating a complex series of menus to retrieve some information can be time-consuming as well. Further, having navigated the system once doesn't make subsequent navigations any easier, except, possibly, that the user may write down or remember the sequence of keystrokes that brings a desired result.
Some solutions have been proposed, but each has a significant cost or drawback.
One way to make the described type of communication easier is to use a visual data based system, such as a personal computer (PC) and modem, in connection with an information retrieval service. However, personal computers are still a significant expense, to which many individuals may have only limited access. In contrast, telephones are ubiquitous and inexpensive to acquire. A further drawback to using PCs and modems to access customer information, such as bank balances, is that on occasion the content of the information retrieved precipitates the need for the customer to communicate with service provider personnel. While the modem-equipped PC is in use, the telephone line is unavailable for voice communication. A desirable solution would permit mixed voice communication and data communication during a single telephone call.
Another proposed solution would be to make use of the emerging Integrated Switched Digital Network (ISDN) standards and equipment to effect simultaneous or near-simultaneous voice and data based communication. However, this solution requires significant investment in new equipment by service providers, service customers and the telephone companies. A desirable solution would be available to the general public at low cost.
Screen-based telephones are another emerging solution to the problems noted above. However, current screen-based telephones do not provide bidirectional, mixed voice and data communications during a single telephone call, wherein data communication may be initiated and terminated by either the calling party or the called party. Further, when prior art screen-based telephones are receiving data, the telephone keypad is disabled, preventing user response until the data communication has been completed.
An Analog Display Services Interface (ADSI) has been developed by BELLCORE for use by the various local Bell Operating Companies and various service providers. Devices compatible with the ADSI communication standard are currently under development, but specific device capabilities are not indicated in the ADSI standard and are presently unknown. The ADSI standard does call for the use of non-standard DTMF tones (i.e. not one of "1"-"9", "0", "*", "#" and "A"-"D") for session initiation. Thus, devices implementing the ADSI standard rely on the use of non-standard hardware, preventing communication with unmodified equipment currently in use. Furthermore, the ADSI standard calls for simplex data communication, wherein customer premises equipment cannot originate data communication. Further, ADSI requires a data session to begin using the signals complying with the Bell 202 data communication standard which is incompatible with existing PC modems.
Another area of art of interest in connection with the present invention includes telephone autodialer systems and electronic personal organizers. These are electronic devices which provide one or more functions including the creation, storage, display and transfer of telephone number station and address information. Telephone number information may include dialing prefix information, area codes, country codes, telephone numbers and auxiliary telephone numbers, as well as any other information required to properly dial a telephone number. Address information may include a person's name, a person's title, the name of a business at which a person works, street address information and other miscellaneous information which may be useful in the context of a telephone directory.
Some devices currently available can autodial a previously stored telephone number. Thus, in addition to functioning as a conventional personal telephone directory, the device can reduce dialing errors by automatically generating the sequence of DTMF tones corresponding to a stored telephone number.
However, devices such as described above do not provide a means for transferring selected telephone number information and address information to another such device over the PSTN during a voice conversation. Thus, a user of such a device who is having a telephone conversation with another user of such a device cannot readily and simply transfer a record from the first user's device to the other user's device electronically. The user would instead recall the record to the device's display and read the information aloud to the other user who will manually enter that information into the other user's device. Although some such devices do provide a data transfer function, they are intended primarily for backup purposes and are limited to batch transfers of records using a special, dedicated, local data link. For example, special cables or an infrared link may be used.
Yet another area of art of interest in connection with the present invention includes "bookmark" functions and macro functions used by computer software applications, networks and communication software. In this context a bookmark is simply a record of certain state information, usually made by a software user, so that the same state can be easily recreated by the user at some point in the future. Macros are a form of software program, intended to accomplish a similar result to bookmarks. A macro is simply a record of a sequence of key strokes and/or pointing device actions designated by a user. Macros are often recorded as the user operates the software from an initial state to a final state. Thus, if the user places the software program into an initial state identical to the initial state from which a macro has been recorded, running the macro would produce the same final state as the user had previously achieved manually by entering the sequence of key strokes and/or pointing device actions. However, bookmarks and macros are stored as private data accessible only from within the application wherein they were created. Thus, they are difficult to transfer to other users of the same software.